The One-Stop House of Adventure

Maui Dive Shop

Especially in a place with as many distractions as Maui, dive travelers often explore the last frontier in the morning and seek terrestrial adventures in the afternoon. Maui Dive Shop knows that, so they specialize in making the most of your island hours. After all, you can sleep when you're on the plane home.

That said, though, you can dive all day if you like, and on Tuesdays and Fridays you can slip into the other side of reef life on a two-tank night dive. I prefer diving at night because I see so much more on the reef, especially color. Just thinking about it I get the same feeling in my stomach I once got on first dates: a blend of magical anticipation and mystery.

Maui Dive Shop plans the first evening dive around dusk. You get to know the reef before the sun sets and then see the changing of the guard. Play a light over the reef and the eyes of shrimp, crabs and lobsters shine back. Tiger cowries ease from daytime hideouts and eels emerge to hunt for dinner. On my last trip I spent an entire night dive following an octopus on the hunt, watching it change color and texture right before my eyes.

Between dives, Maui Dive Shop can arrange for you to bike, raft, hike, take a helicopter tour or rent a jeep. Try biking down Haleakala (after you've off-gassed and your no-fly time has cleared). Seeing the sunrise there is like watching the earth come alive, and then it's one nonstop downhill thrill ride from 10,000 feet to sea level.